


Two Crows Short of a Murder

by Mur



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood, Body Horror, Cannibalism, Gen, Gore, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, OCs exist to further the plot, Oneshot, Transformation, Wings, weird crow monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:53:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2887505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mur/pseuds/Mur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Sawamura Daichi wanted to do was to play volleyball seriously; to salvage their team's reputation and win the right to stay on the court. They could, if the team was willing to sacrifice their humanity. The first step is murder.<br/>(A prequel to A Murder of Crows)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Crows Short of a Murder

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place one year before A Murder Of Crows, though it may be best to read that fic before this one if you want. The depictions of gore and body mutilation are a bit more intense in this story as well. 
> 
> Merry Christmas/winter solstice holiday, enjoy some scared teens and murder.

If there was one thing the Karasuno Boys' Volleyball team refused to be, it was a group of flightless crows.

Somehow, Sugawara Koushi wasn't entirely certain how to feel about that.

In terms of volleyball, Team Karasuno were formidable contenders until the previous year. They made it to finals before finally losing, but the name of the "flightless crows" came from elsewhere. The year before Hinata, Kageyama, Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi came to Karasuno High School, the team was on a horrible losing streak. No matter how well-timed their plays, how high their jumps, how perfect their serves, it didn't matter. They were outmatched in every category. Agility, power, strength, team coordination, it didn't matter. It felt like they didn't have a chance, regardless of how hard they practiced.

At the start of the year, they were invigorated by the large number of new first-years to join the team. In addition to their current second years: Azumane Asahi, Koushi Sugawara, and Sawamura Daichi, they were joined by no less than seven first-years, including middle school star libero Yuu Nishinoya and Ryunosuke Tanaka, who, despite being a rookie, was one of the most vicious players they had ever encountered.

Their captain, Sora Oshiro, was a bouncy third-year with bright green eyes and dark brown hair that came to his ears. Despite his energy, he quickly earned the title of "deadbeat captain" for his penchant for ending practices early in favor of a nap. He was excitable, sunny, and beloved by the entire team. He always was insistent everyone come to practices and play to their heart's content, but he mostly just wanted everyone to have a good time. In spite of all of his drive, he was lazy and laid-back as captain. He ensured that everyone had a chance to play at any games, brought the entire team together for picnics and beach trips.

He was, however, not to be confused with his twin brother, Hiro Oshiro. If Sora was the sun, Hiro was his moon. Hiro was far more down to earth and relaxed, and as the co-captain he was much more calm and level-headed, always trying to counter his brother's antics with a soft smile and sharp sarcasm. As not only a wing spiker but their main server, he'd push his glasses up just before a serve and let out a small breath. He was always cool and ready to act, and also ready to make decisions whenever his twin could not.

However, as the year drew on, the entire team became more and more discouraged. Losing match after losing match, even with the combined firepower of Nishinoya, Asahi, and Tanaka as their power players, was daunting on their spirits. Everyone's spirits, except Sora's, of course.

It was then, a few months before the inter-high, that Daichi decided to act. He sought out their old former coach Ukai, and begged the old man to at least let them have a training camp. Anything, even a day, could be enough to lift their spirits if the whole team came along. It'd be a morale boost from someone other than Sora, who, while everyone enjoyed his presence, was so tirelessly enthusiastic that he wore everyone out. Eventually, through much pleading and begging, (and finally, a personal request from Sugawara, though it was probably the fact that Tanaka had accompanied them, practically climbing all over their shoulder in a way that reminded them both oddly of Nishinoya) he gave in and agreed.

The day was long and tiring, from the very beginning. They all ran drills starting at sunrise, starting with a practice match. Anytime someone hit the ball out or let it touch the floor, they'd have to do dives all around the perimeter of the court.

In earlier practices, it was evident that the combined team of Nishinoya and Asahi would become their power players. Asahi had more than earned his title as the team's ace, dominating with his powerful spikes that hurt just to block, and it was nearly impossible to get a ball past Nishinoya.

Kai, the current libero, and Sora's best friend, knew he was outmatched, but didn't let the fire go out from his eyes. He tried to keep up with Nishinoya for the first few practice sets, but eventually set himself to practicing other techniques. If he couldn't be the ultimate defensive player for the team, he'd find another strength to bring to games, while still being defensive when he needed to be. He practiced attacks and receives with Sugawara, and the setter was exuberant to see the entire team so hyped up. The first practice match, the setter conducted their group for three-on-three like an orchestra.

An hour of cardio, including two laps of the school, jumping jacks, lunges, and push-ups was enough to have most of them gasping for breath on the grass, but Daichi was too determined. He took every punishment game, every extra bit of practice. He ran, jumped, and even did the extra push ups whenever any of his teammates were too tired to continue. He was determined to become a formidable player.

They were still training long after nightfall, everyone except Sora, who opted to sit in the grass and relax when he was too tired to play or do drills any longer. Hiro finally convinced him to come back and join the team for a practice game towards the end of the day, but he seemed bored, less energetic than usual. He was a recreational player, not a serious one, and everyone knew it.

Everyone's arms and legs were so sore they could barely move by dinner, and scarfed down their food with excitement and vigor. Old coach Ukai chuckled his satisfaction in their hard work and progress, and soon afterwards, the first and second years crowded around him, asking for stories and more techniques and tips left and right.

"What about the small giant? What about him? Did he have a secret technique? A signature move?" Daichi asked, looking surprisingly more enthusiastic than any of them had ever seen him on the court.

"Yeah, tell us!" Nishinoya chimed in. "Did he have some sweet move you could teach our spikers? I wanna see Asahi slam it down like that!"

The old man, who at first had been a bit begrudging about sharing stories, was more than willing, enthusiastic, even, up until this point. His face grew solemn, and he frowned. "Look. His... secret, as I suppose you could call it, was a combination of him being an incredibly strong player, but also something else. His ah--'technique,' if you want to call it that, was something no ordinary person could attain. Though--ahem, it's probably best if that ends with him. After all, the reason none of your current third-years know the technique is that neither they, nor the class before them were strong enough, nor animalistic enough, to utilize it."

"Aw, come on! Tell us about it! If it's some Karasuno secret, we should pick it up and restore our school to its former glory!" Tanaka interrupted, suddenly sounding fired up. "It'd be awesome! We'd be unstoppable!"

Daichi nodded. "Ukai-sensei, I want to play volleyball! We can't play more unless we can at least last past the first round of a tournament!"

Everyone fell silent. Sugawara stared at him. Daichi really wanted to play. It wasn't a secret, volleyball was his passion. It was Daichi's passion more than having fun was Sora's passion, and everyone knew it. He wasn't an ace like Asahi, nor was he a violent player like Tanaka or Nishinoya, but he was in no way as laid back or as lazy as their captain. He was determined. He wanted to play on their team with pride. Sugawara could see it in his eyes; he was almost desperate. He wanted to play volleyball with his everything.

All eyes were on coach Ukai, who surveyed their excited faces, then sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you. But the catch is, it's no technique. There is no technique. He was a powerful player and a prodigy at that, but he played the way he did because he was willing to sacrifice his humanity."

"What do you mean, sacrifice his humanity?" Asahi asked, wide-eyed.

"Hm, there's no point in not being straightforward with you kids. To be like _that,_ you have to go beyond human. A player like that has to be willing to abandon their humanity and become an animal, a monster, even, if you will." The coach explained, shaking his head.

"A monster..." Ennoshita's voice was a whisper.

"That sounds awesome!" Nishinoya interrupted, practically climbing up onto Tanaka's shoulders in the process.

"Well, it's a power obtained from a heinous act. An act only to be performed by someone who attends Karasuno. If they're strong enough, a crow can be born from a player who dares to eat a human heart." His voice had dropped to just above a coarse whisper.

Sugawara just stared at him. He wasn't sure what to make of any of this. A crow? Perhaps it was a metaphor. It could have been. A Metaphor for players ascending beyond human capability. A true mark beyond genius or skilled, simply inhuman.

"What? No way, quit playing with us, gramps! That's mean!" Nishinoya pouted, sinking forward, falling off of Tanaka's shoulders and toppling into his lap, nearly headfirst.

The coach laughed. "Fine, see it as being mean, then maybe you won't try it."

\--

For a time, Koushi Sugawara believed that they had all put the tale of the Small Giant's secret completely out of their minds. Maybe everyone had assumed that it was false, or that it was just completely out of the question. None of their teammates were willing to do something so taboo as hurt someone, or devour human flesh for the sake of volleyball.

Apparently, it was not the case, as the ominous task was exactly what nearly the entire volleyball team was thinking of when they found themselves standing over a dead body.

It was nearly an entire month between training camp and the accident, but it felt like the following day to Sugawara. One of the biggest bullies in the school had been targeting Ennoshita specifically for weeks upon weeks now, and the trio of first-years found themselves actively trying to avoid him any moment that they weren't in class. That day, they were sitting on a wall outside the fence on the roof of the school when he found them. They argued and yelled until it escalated into a fight and one thing let to another. Koushi and their fellow second-years were just opening the door in time to see the unlucky victim lose his footing after making a swing at one of the first-years. He missed, stumbled, and toppled off of the edge of the wall, falling three stories to the pavement below.

Typically, such a fall wouldn't kill most healthy teenagers, but there was something about a human neck snapping with a sickening _crack_  upon impact and the dull thud of clothed flesh against concrete that informed the first and second-years of the Karasuno High volleyball club that he was, indeed, dead. They'd never seen a person die before, and the first reaction for any of them was nothing short of dumbstruck, as they gazed upon the bloody corpse.

_Was it even real? Was he actually dead?_

The first one to snap out of the daze and into action was Daichi, who surprised everyone by rushing back down the stairs in a flurry of worry and panic, and a murmur of "Oh damn, what-are-we-supposed-to-do-now's."

Koushi raced after him with the usual "What-are-you-going-on-about," and Asahi called after them about how it would probably be best to get the third-years, or an adult, or someone who knew what to do in this sort of situation. The terrified first-years were left huddled together on the corner of the roof, until Koushi returned in a few moments, who reassured them to pay no mind to Daichi, and if a teacher or the police showed up, they'd have to write witness statements.

The setter wore an expression of worry, leaning against the doorframe for a few seconds, too concerned with the personal welfare of others at the moment to panic in the first place. He wasn't certain if it was bad to be so calm in such a situation, but the team came first. There wouldd be time to panic for himself later.

Within minutes, the entire volleyball team stood around the body, surveying the damage. No one dared suggest what most of them were thinking, and Kinoshita was so shaken up that he begged them to contact the teacher, or the authorities, or something. Anything. They needed help!

"But what if they think you did it on purpose?" Nishinoya's voice was shaking, and Koushi had a feeling that even he wasn't quite sure why he was protesting the most logical and sensible course of action in this situation. "Uh... I mean. I'm just saying."

"No way! it was definitely an accident!" Narita defended. "We were all there!"

"Yeah, and I'm not saying anyone did, but to somebody like a teacher, wouldn't it seem like somebody pushed him? There's three of you, and there was one of him, after all," Tanaka chimed in.

Asahi swallowed, looking more like a kicked puppy than a concerned classmate, and Daichi threw a pointed glare at him and Tanaka. "Whoa, everybody. Let's all calm down for a second. Clearly what we should be doing right now is getting help. This guy is beyond need for an ambulance, so let's all think rationally for a minute, then get help."

"No way, didn't you just hear Tanaka?" Nishinoya shot back, frown stretched across his face.

They all piped in at once, arguing with one another louder and louder as everyone tried to talk over one another, and Asahi slunk off to puke into a bush, where he sat for a few minutes in horror, with Nishinoya rubbing his back and whispering reassurances no one but the two of them could hear.

"What if we just did, you know, the thing coach Ukai-san was talking about? What if? I don't know, we fed his heart to somebody?" Tanaka offered.

Everyone fell silent. Though they'd all been arguing about what the _right_  course of action was, he had suggested what everyone was thinking of; not the _right_  suggestion, but truly the _wrong_  one. It was the most despicable course of action, no doubt. But somehow, in the backs of everyone's minds, they were actually considering it. They all knew it was wrong, and disgusting beyond belief, and the mere suggestion made Asahi double over again and lose the remaining bits of his lunch, if there really was anything left in his stomach at that point.

"No," Ennoshita whispered. "No. No way, I don't care if he was a horrible person, you all are too for just considering it! Do you all actually care that much about volleyball that you're going to desecrate the dead?" He was met with silence, and Kinoshita laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder, rubbing it gently. "Over a silly superstition, the ramblings of a loony old man," he breathed. "Do what you want, do whatever you want with it. If anyone asks me, he took some of my money and ran off. I wasn't there for this. I'm not having any part in this. I'm going home." It was an outburst from the last person anyone suspected, and the three of them rushed off, leaving their five remaining teammates alone with the body.

"I think he's right, it's a horrible idea," Asahi attempted. Daichi shot him a pointed glare, but he chewed his lip and continued. "No, really. It is, but... we should try it."

Daichi didn't say anything, and instead whipped out his phone to call Sora. Their captain would know what to do. Well, maybe not know, but he'd make a decision (and if he didn't, Hiro would for him. The bespectacled twin always seemed to be the brains of the operation when it came to them). A decision that Sugawara was certain would be rash, impulsive, and wrong, but a decision nonetheless. At this point, everything felt like the wrong decision.

Still, somehow they all found themselves in a clearing in the woods, a ways behind the school less than an hour later. Kai and the twins oversaw the operation. Sora had agreed readily enough, though Hiro called the whole thing "something akin to a wild goose chase after a Freudian wives' tale." His response prompted Yuu to ask exactly what a Freudian wife was, and where he could find one for himself and Tanaka Yeah, they'd only need one, they'd be more than willing to share. Their bespectacled co-captain merely rubbed his temples in response and told the two of them to shut up and get some tarps to lay out, if they had the energy to blabber on about ludicrous things.

They laid the body out on a large plastic tarp, and gathered some makeshift utensils. That was, if one could call a carving knife, an x-acto, a screwdriver, and some scissors, all of which they'd soak with rubbing alcohol and bleach later counted as utensils. Sugawara had reluctantly agreed to be the one carrying out the dirty deed, as long as someone else actually ate the heart. They tore off the victim's school uniform and undershirts, which Hiro suggested they burn later, and Koushi pressed the tip of the carving knife against his skin delicately. The setter's throat felt dry, and he tried to remind himself that this was like doing a dissection for class, just bigger. If they refused to think of it like a person, maybe it wouldn't feel so heinous.

No, nothing dulled the horror that bubbled up in Sugawara's chest. They pressed into the skin with the knife, breaking it. It felt cold and squishy as the knife cleaved against flesh and struck the bone of the sternum with a sandy "shlunk." He refused to look up at their teammates, or the victim's face for that matter, focusing instead on the task at hand. He set the knife aside, picking up the scissors instead, sliding them into the newly-formed incision. His movements were slow, steady, and attempting at precision, but far from adept at the task. Cutting the flesh open was a tedious and disgusting task, and the skin cut like wet cardboard: slow and slimy, almost sticky. They managed to hack away a rectangle of skin and muscle, setting it aside on the plastic tarp. The smell from within was metallic, rusty, and wet, and Koushi resisted the urge to turn away and puke. He took a deep breath, and cut again, peeling away another layer of muscle haphazardly, revealing the sternum and ribs with smooth muscle of organs tucked safely beneath bone. He steeled himself, discarding the scissors in favor of the screwdriver, pressing it against the wet surface of the sternum. Metal hit bone once, twice, three times, with a wet clack before there was a cracking sound, and he carefully pressed his fingers against the bone, thumb and forefinger curled around the edge until it finally gave in from pressure and snapped.

"Gross, oh, I might be sick," Kai murmured.

"Gross, but kinda cool!" Nishinoya whispered back.

Koushi sighed, surveying the remains of the task at hand. "Can someone... come over here and hold this open? I think I need to break the rib cage, or at least pry it open."

"Did you really have to say it out loud?" Asahi whimpered. The scene was already very nearly too much for anyone, even of strong constitution, to handle, and now they were going beyond desecration, and into mutilation. Daichi ended up being the one to volunteer, shoving his larger hands into the open wound, peeling away the flesh and shattered bone alike as it made a quiet squelching noise beneath his fingertips.

Koushi wrapped an entire fist around the first rib and pulled, tearing muscle and cracking bone with dexterous hands. Daichi pushed his fingers in deeper and Koushi swallowed, trying to ignore the sight and smell before them both, pulling again to slowly pry the ribcage open. The heart lay there, and he lifted it out carefully, pulling to sever the arteries (though they spurted blood when broken and the setter winced as it dripped out slowly), cutting the thicker ones with scissors before holding it up.

Everyone stared at the offending organ in a mixture of disgust, wonder, and horror.

"So, who should eat it?" Koushi asked.

"Asahi deserves the power, he's our ace!" Nishinoya offered, but the player in question shook his head no meekly, and the libero backed off.

"Don't look at me," Kai said with a frown. "If anything, Noya-kun's a better player than me. Or Daichi! What about a superhuman defensive team?"

"I'll do it." It was Sora. He had remained silent with his brother until now, but he was oddly calm as he stepped forward. In fact, he was smiling.

"Sora, no," Hiro tried to interrupt, but Sora held up a hand.

"You guys want to play seriously, right? That's why you wanted that crazy training camp, and why you're sick of being the 'Flightless Crows,' right? Yeah, I guess my kind of volleyball isn't fun for anybody if we hardly ever get anywhere with official matches," he explained, kneeling beside Koushi and Daichi. He took the organ delicately in his hand from the setter, who was staring at him wide-eyed. "I will say I think this is out of control ,but a captain's got to be there for his team, right?"

It sounded as ridiculous as it felt, and Koushi's stomach turned over. They, (well, in this case _he, specifically_ ,) had just carved up a human body over a superstition _about volleyball_. Even if it didn't do anything, even if it was a sort of a wives' tale, it was already real, to a degree. It had been made real just by them carrying all of this out. What they had done here was an act of brutality beyond humanity.

_We've already sacrificed our humanity, all of us have, in deciding to do this,_  he thought.

Sora sat in the grass holding the heart, staring at it. It dripped the remains of its contents, still lukewarm and fresh. It felt like an eternity before he raised it to his lips, biting down. Everyone held their breath as they watched their captain eat the heart as he would an apple, remains of blood dripping down his lip from the soft cardiac muscle. He ate it until there were just a few stringy bits of artery hanging from his hand, which he stared at, blinking at his own bloody hands. His brother inched closer to him, rubbing his back.

"Are you okay?" Hiro whispered, kneeling beside him.

"I don't feel much--" the captain began, but then he shuddered, doubling forward. He closed his eyes, biting down on his lip. A soft noise escaped him, something like a mix of a wail and a choked sob. Everyone shrank back as his eyes opened again. They were empty. Not like someone who was blind or lost, but solid black. There was no sclera, no iris. Just pained-looking, black orbs. He sank back down, squeezing his eyes shut, hugging himself as a tremor wracked his body. There was a soft crackling noise, and they all looked up. It was hard to hear, really. but in the silence, it was a noise barely audible through his labored breathing and the wind through the trees above them. His back stretched and twisted, and it looked like something was underneath Sora's shirt, trying to claw its' way out.

Hiro saw it too, and grabbed Sora's shirt, yanking it up to to his armpits, revealing two long wounds across his brother's back, deep and raw, but not quite bleeding. Instead, it looked like the skin around them was being stretched, pushed at, tenting, even. It was being stretched and pulled, until it tore, like a bed sheet being ripped in two, but instead, blood and something mangled and covered in feathers spilled out. It was caught on the edge of the skin, tearing more of it from his body as it escaped, but there was a wet snap and it fell across his back, hanging from his body to the ground, and the teenager cried out in pain again, burying his face in his brother's shirt. He was shaking and sweating, and at this point he barely looked human. More black feathers, smaller this time, were peeking out from beneath his skin on his neck and the edges of his face, and the mangled mess along his back was twitching as it tried to move, but it ceased as Sora groaned in pain, and fell unconscious.

"Fuck, he's losing too much blood..." Hiro's voice was shaking, as he tore off his own shirt and tried to fashion bandages, then reached forward and tried to pull the feathered _thing_  that had come from his brother's back, but to no avail. "Someone help me!"

There was an arm on Koushi's arm, and then he realized that Daichi was gripping it tightly. The setter slid a hand up to hold his hand, rubbing circles into the back of his palm with a thumb. Honestly, he wanted to help too, but was rooted to the spot. This just seemed surreal. Something was wrong. _Very wrong._  He had to help! But they couldn't even will themselves to take a step forward! They couldn't even move.

Luckily, Asahi, of all people, swooped forward, his face as white as a sheet, but the look of fear on his face was mixed with pure determination. Something in him had clicked, and adrenaline had taken over as he pulled the feathery mess aside, wiping away blood and pressing Hiro's shirt against the injuries, trying to stop the bleeding. They sat there for what felt like an eternity, Asahi and Hiro trying to stop the bleeding, and Kai trying to rouse his friend to wakefulness. The sky darkened, and they sat there in darkness, until the bleeding had stopped, but their captain's skin was cold. No one dared to breathe a word, until Asahi asked Daichi to come over, and use his phone to provide light.

Their ace slowly unfolded the feathered thing that had protruded from Sora's back, and everyone who recognized it gasped. "It's a wing. He...grew wings," Daichi breathed.

"Not only that, but..." Asahi murmured, his expression grim.

"But what?" the other wing spiker asked.

"He's....dead."

No one slept that night.

Koushi wasn't sure if it would be possible to sleep ever again.

Their captain was dead.

\--

Hiro hadn't returned to school the day after Sora died, nor the day after, or the day after. A week later, he returned to his classes, but not the volleyball club. In fact, he ignored the existence of the team entirely. He never spoke to them, never came to practice, and went about his daily life in relative silence, even to the people everyone thought to be his friends. It was then that everyone noticed how quiet he actually was; the twin who did nearly all of the talking had been Sora, and Hiro only occasionally would interrupt to calm him down or add a snarky remark.

They had all witnessed something they would call truly awful, but for some reason, the very idea was something Koushi couldn't get off of his mind. Not only that, but one could tell that Daichi couldn't stop thinking about it, either. He never mentioned it, but he threw himself into practice. He barely focused on class, as soon as classes ended, he would rush to the gym and practice his receives until his arms were red.

Koushi wasn't sure how to react the day Hiro came back to practice. It was already fairly late, and while he was still in his school uniform, he wore a face displaying the seriousness and intensity he usually had during games. He waited until there was a break in practice, and Daichi called for everyone to take five minutes to cool down for a bit and get water, but no one relaxed. Instead, all eyes were on their former vice captain.

Hiro pulled a damp paper bag from his backpack, which contained a second paper bag, and something wrapped in a wet cloth. He pushed the paper bag into Daichi's hand, and let out a soft sigh. "You're captain now. Kai and I quit. But. You can have this," he chewed his lip. He looked defeated, tired, like he hadn't slept in a week. He probably hadn't. "Make sure you don't waste it." He smiled. It was a sad, exhausted smile, highlighting the dark circles around his eyes, and just how lonely and pathetic he looked without his twin at his side.

When he left, he never returned to volleyball practice.

Daichi opened the bag and pulled out the wadded up towel, unwrapping it slowly.

It was a heart. Sora's heart.

After practice, they all stood in the woods behind the school, in the same place they had a mere week before.

Now the question was who would eat it.

Tanaka kept murmuring about how fucked up this all was under his breath, and Daichi didn't want to force anyone into it, for fear that whoever it was could die. Probably. Well, there was a high possibility. The very thought of trying again was ludicrous, but tempting. Hiro brought them a heart. They all knew, but did not want to think about what he had done for it. Most likely he sat on his kitchen floor, eyes red with tears and his lips thin and flat against themselves in concentration, as he cut open his twin's mangled body and carved out the precious organ. Everyone knew it, but none of the five wanted to acknowledge it. One of them could die tonight.

Silence reigned as they all stared at the towel in Daichi's hands. Koushi surveyed the group anxiously, and even Nishinoya, who was usually loud and bubbly, was silent. He was staring at the heart, just as everyone else was, but he seemed apprehensive, even moreso than his teammates. There was a war going on behind those eyes, the setter was certain.

"Maybe Asahi should have it. You know, because he's the ace? He's the strongest player we've got!" Tanaka piped in suddenly, his voice cracking.

Daichi's eyes flickered from Sugawara to Tanaka, and then to Asahi. "I don't think--"

"Perhaps someone should volunteer, instead," Sugawara suggested, biting his lip anxiously. "No one should have to take this risk without being sure they want to."

"No, I." All eyes turned to Asahi, who no one expected to speak up. "I think I should do it. I want to be stronger.. I'll. I'll do it." His voice was shaking, but his eyes betrayed no fear. He had a look about him like he did in games, his usual sheepishness drowned out by a quiet defiance and determination that overtook his entire being. He was probably terrified inside, but he didn't show it if he was. His hands quivered as he stepped forward, and Nishinoya looked as though he was about to pounce forward and grab the ace, begging him not to, but something stopped him. He wrung his hands in his tee shirt, letting him step ahead. The fear that belonged in Asahi's eyes lingered in Yuu Nishinoya's.

Koushi wondered if Asahi had been thinking about this all along. Everyone was surprised to see him of all people volunteer, but he seemed firm in his decision. His fingers trembled as he took the heart from Daichi's hands, it squelching slightly beneath his fingers. He was silent even as he bit down, and no one dared to breathe.

Asahi bit down, the putrid juices of the aged organ spilling out over his hands. It wasn't quite rancid, but Sugawara couldn't help but imagine that this was the most horrifying thing any of them had ever encountered. The wind rustled the branches above them, but somehow everything felt eerily still, and even the treetops seemed far away. It was a warm summer night, no doubt the woods would be alive with the sounds of insects and small animals alike, but the silence save the sound of the wind rustling the trees above weighed down upon them as Asahi took his second bite, then his third, swallowing harshly, before finally choking down the last of his forbidden meal.

Now, if the previous tragedy was far more than an imaginary nightmare, they all knew that Asahi's life was in danger. To some measure, it didn't make sense. There was no scientific explanation for why someone's body would deform itself as it had for Sora as a reaction to eating human flesh. Throw up, become violently ill, perhaps, but there was no logical reason for it to trigger a ritualistic transformation in terrified teens.

After a few moments of silence, Asahi let out a pained yelp, doubling forward in pain. He dropped to his knees in the grass, and both Nishinoya and Sugawara rushed to his side. "What do we do?" the libero whispered, the terror evident on his face. It was obvious that he was trying not to panic, as something pushed up against the inside of Asahi's shirt along his back, and he let out a soft whine of pain. He leaned forward and slowly pulled his shirt up over his head, and the lines and impressions stretched up across his entire back, parallel and raised, pushing against his skin from the inside. Along them, two reddening wounds were forming, slowly widening on either side of his spine: skin that had been ripped open by something black and wet pushing against the skin.

"We need to be sure he doesn't bleed too much," Daichi reminded them, his voice wavering. "If those wounds get too big..."

"Someone could reach in and pull the wings out? Remember last time, he seemed okay until they burst out. If we ensure that he doesn't bleed any more than he needs to..." Sugawara whispered back.

"You know, I can hear you..." Asahi interrupted, his voice shaking. "Yes, just do it, please! Pull them out!"

"But who should?" Tanaka asked.

"I'll do it! I've got the smallest hands!" Nishinoya bounded forward, but he was trembling, despite the determination in his tone. He gave the ace a terrified nod, as though he were trying to reassure him that they'd be fine. He was trying to say that everything would be fine, they'd go grab food after this and hit volleyballs against a wall until their forearms were sore. They'd get through this, they'd survive; that this wasn't the end of anything. Nothing would change, and they'd go get milkshakes together when this was all over. It seemed like he was trying to reassure himself more than anyone else present, though he said nothing: instead reaching forward with trembling hands.

He stood close beside him, his hands shaking as he pressed them against the tender wounds, stiffening when the larger teen winced from the touch. When he reached inside, it was wet and squishy, fingers brushing against bloody skin and something wet and hard, just barely protruding, shaking as they wrapped around something thin and solid, unfamiliar. He pulled, just barely, and Asahi cried out in pain, squeezing his eyes shut as he flinched, and the libero pulled again. He _had_  to do this.

Except he couldn't. His hands were too shaky, his breath was too ragged. He tried to pull again but his fingers merely yanked at skin, causing Asahi to cry out in pain, a noise that sounded hardly human any longer. It was more like a screech, or the cry of an injured animal. Asahi's eyes no longer looked like his own, but those of a creature they could not identify. They had no distinct hue any longer, they were merely black as midnight. He stepped back slowly, in quiet horror. "I'm just hurting him more," he breathed.

Sugawara sprang into action. The setter wasn't about to give up, stepping in front of Nishinoya, who stared down at his bloody hands in what they imagined to be shame. Sugawara's lithe hands pushed against the skin and beneath its edge, hooking thumb around and forefinger beneath something tough and wet, pulling it forth through the wound, and giant black wings, covered in a thin, bloody membrane, sprouted forth, larger than any of them were tall, black as night. He pulled a second time, and they slid out easier now, the remainder of the giant appendages sliding through to meet the rest.

Asahi fell forward in relief, letting out a small gasp. His fingers scraped against dirt and dry leaves, and there was a distinct sound not unlike knuckles cracking.

"Are you okay?" Sugawara asked, voice low and anxious.

"I... I think so, it doesn't hurt as much. It just feels heavy," Azumane breathed, staring down at his hands, except they weren't quite hands anymore. Fingers had hardened and grown slightly darker, curling and forming into something that resembled a claw more than it did a human hand.

Nishinoya looked on in silence, his face screwed up into something akin to simultaneous horror and relief, something Sugawara didn't realize was quite possible until that very moment. He didn't step forward, sneakers riddled with drops of blood that fell from his hands.

"This might not be the best time, but I'm hungry..." the not-quite-ace-not-quite-crow murmured.

"Then we'll get you something. I think I still have some power bars left in my bag back at the gym," Daichi offered.

"No--Daichi-san, I... I need more." He swallowed. "I meant more... flesh. Oh my god." He sounded disgusted with himself, even as he said it aloud, burying his face in clawed hands. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for, you're alive." Sugawara dropped to their knees beside the ace, rubbing circles into his shoulders.

"But what's happening to me? Am I some sort of monster..?"

"I--I don't know. I don't think so," the setter answered, voice softening. "You're not a monster, you're Asahi. But, if this is really what happened to former players, there has to be a way for you to turn back into a human."

"But I'm so hungry..."

Daichi pursed his lips. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation, and Koushi knew he was trying to act the part of a leader now. Well, not only leader, but the caretaker of the entire team. He drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "We'll go find you some. It has to be human, right?"

"No way! We can't just kill someone!" Tanaka argued.

"No, we'll find someone sick, or someone old--no, actually. That's still awful and despicable. We'll find someone who deserves it," their new captain answered.

"Deserves it...?" Asahi gulped.

"Well, we find a truly despicable person," Daichi clarified, crossing his arms. He sounded like he was trying to comfort everyone, but the anxiety crept through in his voice. Murder was murder, no matter how terrible the person, after all. "I'll go out to the worst part of town, and... well..."

"No! I mean yes!" Nishinoya piped up for the first time since he had backed off from Asahi. "I mean, let me go. I'll help find something, um. I'll make sure Asahi gets to eat!" This was something he could help with. This wasn't like volleyball, after all. In volleyball, if the ball hit the floor, no one died.

"Clean yourself up before you go anywhere," Tanaka teased, but the libero was Not In The Mood for it at the moment, and turned, promptly wiping his bloody hands on the offending player's shirt.

"Fine, then. Myself, Nishinoya, and Tanaka will go find someone--er, something for Asahi to eat. Sugawara will stay here and make sure he's all right," he finished, trying his best to sound authoritative. It was only half working.

When they left, Sugawara sat beside the ace, who was staring at his hands, now his claws, slowly opening and closing them. Tiny black feathers lined the edge of his face, tracing around his forehead and cheeks, stretching down the sides of his neck, wet with blood along his upper back. Despite his now black eyes appearing ominous and inhuman now, he looked as concerned as ever.

"Don't look at me like that," Sugawara half-scolded softly.

"Well, I'm not dead," he answered with a dry laugh. "I'm just so hungry...it's really unbearable. I've never felt like this before."

The setter pursed his lips into a thin line, and reached over Asahi's shoulder, carefully peeling a bit of the viscous membrane that stretched over his wings away. "Everyone's out getting food for you. How do you feel, other than hungry?"

The ace tried to pull at his claw, but his classmate took it in his hands, rubbing circles into his palms gently. "Um, my back is sore. It feels heavy, but most of the pain is gone. I think... I think I'm more sore than anything now. I think I might actually survive this."

Sugawara smiled. It was sad, forced, but he didn't care. "Azumane Asahi, you'll be fine."

When Tanaka, Daichi, and Nishinoya returned, they brought a body in tow, and the frustrated libero grumbled the whole way about how this guy had actually tried to mug them, and mistook him for a kid. They all stripped the body down, letting Asahi eat his fill, which, surprisingly, wasn't that much. He'd eaten about half of the arm before stopping, and little by little, he began to look human again. First his eyes slowly returned to normal, then his hands returned to being normal, soft, palms with five fingers and ordinary fingernails (though a bit stained), and the feathers seemed to retract into his skin, fading into lines, until they melted away into skin. He shivered as he was able to slowly fold his wings in against his back, and fold them in against themselves, nearly convulsing and falling forward again as they slipped back inside his back, through the raw and tender (but luckily no longer bleeding) wounds directly against and beneath his shoulder blades.

They decided to cleave some flesh from the bone to keep in case the hunger overtook Asahi again, but Daichi suggested they burn the otherwise inedible parts of the remains. They carved it apart in silence, the entire time none of them dared to look at the face, focusing instead on the skin and muscle of arm, legs and torso. Daichi's parents had an extra freezer in the garage below their house they never used, and he'd be able to store the extra meat there, no one would touch it, just in case.

\--

"I wanna become a crow."

_"What?!"_

It had been three weeks since Asahi's strange transformation, and they referred to this strange new form of his as a crow. A human crow, for the most part, a bird with human-like features. It only emerged when he had to eat, and for the most part he had been able to return to normal. They had also considered if they could, or should, look for a way to return him to normal. At practices now, his movements were faster, more fluid. He seemed to have this instinct about him that Sugawara noticed after a few of their quick practice matches--he seemed to know where the ball was going, even if he wasn't focusing on it, and could rush forward for the spike without even being signaled. His skills were the same, but more refined. His spikes and tosses more accurate, his receives more vicious. It wasn't something you could notice from the bleachers, but on the court, he seemed to emanate an entirely different vibe. The wounds on his back had almost completely "healed," if one could call it that, replaced by taut skin and muscle beneath it, and the muscles of his upper back at the base of his where his wings typically sprouted seemed to be bulking up as well.

On the other hand, their practices were frustrating, if only because there were only five of them now, and they all knew it wasn't enough to keep a team. You needed six, well, seven, actually, to play a game properly, and eight was an ideal minimum to round out a team. They'd lost no less than six players since the start of the school year, and with only the five of them and their dark secrets, they were hesitant to invite anyone to play with them at all.

Still, Daichi and Sugawara both thought that Yuu Nishinoya knew better.

"Absolutely not," Daichi's voice was firm.

"I don't care. Do it." Though he wasn't even 5 feet tall, their libero seemed more intimidating than the captain at that moment. His eyes were narrow, his gaze burning into them both.

"But you could die!" Sugawara tried to reason with him. "I'm not watching anyone else die the way Sora did. And Asahi...you saw, he barely survived. What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing's gotten into me. I made a decision." He shot back.

"Three people are _dea_ _d!_ " the setter argued, sighing in exasperation. "Please."

"I'm not asking your permission. Either of yours." Nishinoya was standing his ground, even if he knew he couldn't win a verbal argument with Daichi, he wasn't going to let his senpai, or any of his senpais, stop him. "I'm going to become a crow whether you want me to or not. You can either give me the heart from Daichi's freezer--and don't give me that look, I know you kept it, even if you disposed of everything else, and if you don't hand it over, I'll go find some despicable person and kill them myself."

"Do you even have the slightest idea of what you're saying...?" Sugawara's voice was just barely under their breath, brimming with worry.

A "despicable person" was what they referred to as the only type of food acceptable to feed Asahi. If they had to kill again, it'd be a thoroughly-researched process. No one could be linked back to them, so only total strangers were acceptable. No friends, acquaintances, relatives, or revenge kills, no matter what the other person did. Still, no one had actually carried this out. The meat from their first kill had lasted them until now, with Asahi eating approximately once every three days, he tried to keep his meals small.

Daichi drew in a breath, frowning. Three people were _dead._ "Fine. I'll give it to you. But. You have to promise me. Everyone on the team, actually, has to promise me. After this, no more crows."

Sugawara was surprised to find them all in the same spot again, the sun dipping towards the edge of the horizon as they walked into the trees, shadows lengthening all around them. It painted the sky a blazing red and orange, which streaked down through the leaves in tiny beams, leaving flecks of gold across the fallen leaves carpeting the forest floor, leaves crunching beneath sneakers; and the heart, wrapped in a warm, wet towel, was still thawing at its core when Yuu took the first bite.

It was cold and wet, and Sugawara knelt before him, presenting it to the libero like a scene from a baroque painting, the flecks of evanescent sunlight reflecting across Yuu's face, staining his tears golden. Though he was crying, his face was solemn, calm. He said nothing, eating the organ without complaint or hesitation. He looked more determined, more intense than he ever had in any game.

He finished it off, biting down on his lip instead of crying out as the pain pulsed across his back and he tore off his sweaty tee shirt, making no sound other than an involuntary whine of pain as the setter's hands delved into the rippling wounds down his back, as his now-experienced hands wrapped around something solid and pulled, in a careful, yet fluid motion. He gasped from the pain as they unfurled, fingers flexing and claws extending into the dirt in front of him as he pushed his weight onto them to relieve some of the weight on his back, but his eyes carried no fear, only raw determination.

His wings were smaller than Asahi's, feathers more streamlined and shorter, wingtips highlighted in gold, or perhaps that was just a trick of the light, the sun at the brink of twilight splashing the scene with colour. They were giant black appendages nonetheless, stretching out to be longer than he was tall, and Sugawara released them as they extended, pulling away some of the bloodied membrane that covered them as they did so. The black feathers made the setter wonder if they were cursed for this, beyond despicable themselves. By their own rules, they too, were worthy of being crow food. Still, it seemed oddly poetic that there was no morally correct way anyone could see for going about this.

Nishinoya stayed silent when Daichi asked if he needed anything. The first-year's face was streaked with the remains of tears, the newly-sprouted feathers around the edges of his cheeks were damp, but his visage remained cool and calm. He shook from the tremor of the wings, not from pain or fear. Sugawara couldn't help but admire his fiery determination, and the captain grumbled to himself, pulling out another strip of the meat. "Here. Asahi was ravenous, so. Take this."

He used his claws to support himself for a few moments, before finally taking the meat as it was offered to him. He bit into it with vigor and devoured it faster than their captain expected, but they fell into a silence that was more awkward than tense. No one was sure what to do now.

Now they had two crows in their midst.

Two creatures that weren't quite human anymore, though Sugawara felt the weight of responsibility bearing down. The setter felt as though it was no one else's responsibility to take care of these crows. With their own hands, they had pulled wings from their backs, and by the same hands they had failed to save the team's captain. Two teammates, two friends who now fed on flesh and gained no sustenance from ordinary food. They could eat it, of course, but it never sated hunger or made either of the two feel full.

It was a struggle, but their power was undeniable.

Their libero was sharper and faster than ever. His receives were sharp, even when they were one-handed or just barely scraping against his fingertips, he'd have the ball back up and back to his teammates in no time. He even surprised himself with a bump that made it over the net once in awhile. His surprise melted into glee, into excitement, and turned back into ferocity.

He swore up and down that he'd be the ultimate libero for the team. He walked up to Asahi at practice and jammed his finger against the bewildered ace's chest, swearing up and down that he'd never let the ball fall. Asahi could face forward and hit the spikes, and his kouhai would save his back. He leaned in and whispered something, and Asahi nodded slowly, fingers pressing into the seams of the volleyball in his hands.

Daichi's meat store was running low faster now with two mouths to feed instead of one, and soon it arose again that they'd have to find another person for food. Tanaka suggested that they feed the heart of this person to another team member: which was considered carefully by their captain for an entire 0.002 seconds, after which Daichi answered with a decisive "Absolutely not."

If they were going to become systematic (out of need) serial killers, at the very least they could lay down some rules, which the five of them outlined together. If they were going to call their not-quite-human players crows, they could be scavengers of society. It sounded very much like false justice, but somehow it comforted them, at least on an external level. Any victim was to be a despicable person, as outlined earlier. Revenge kills were forbidden, as were friends, family, or anyone who could be traced back to the team. Victims had to be strangers, no ifs, ands, or buts. Any bodies had to be disposed of completely. Anything that "looked" human that couldn't be carved up and saved as meat was to be destroyed entirely, burned, or discarded in moving water. Anything they did try would be carried out in secret, with no witnesses. Their last rule was one Sugawara insisted they include, out of the setter's own instincts to protect the team: protect the crows, and their human identities, at all costs.

After all, if they were killing for their teammates, all of the effort would be useless if they didn't protect them, or their identities.

But perhaps they'd actually have a chance this year, if only they could get enough players TO enter the inter high. A team of five was still short a player, and that was even with all five of them on the court at once. Now they had Nishinoya's odd speed and instinct, amplified. It was enough to see a ball falling feet away, the agility to skid and dive precisely at the right moment such that his hand would be between the ball and the floor, forearms outstretched and ready, waiting to bump it back up at the perfect moment. He had already been a powerful player, but now, he was a powerhouse. He was a dash of ferocity punctuated with intensity, and at times, feathers.

The air around him was hotter than the rest of the court, giving off a vibe that made Sugawara feel like their feet were sinking deeper into their sneakers, hands heavier, sweat dripping down his face before even tossing the ball.

At this point, their entire team dynamic had changed They had a beast at their backs, catching and protecting them, ensuring them that the other team wouldn't score, even if they fumbled the receive. They had a force at their forefront as well: a force named Azumane Asahi. He could be sheepish off of the court, rarely raising his voice or asserting himself, (and with Daichi as captain now, he only ever spoke up when he had something urgent to say, or their libero nudged him repeatedly in the arm until he piped in with his opinion), but on the court he became another person. He dove, jumped, and spiked with an explosive power unlike any he had before. He rushed for the ball, his timing to Sugawara's tosses exact. If the setter released the ball, they'd fall into sync, breathing slow, evenly, in rhythm with one another, the entire court moving in slow motion as he became an angel unleashing a beast, until fingers collided with a ball, slamming it down onto the floor on the other side of the net.

"You know, it's pretty awesome," Nishinoya said offhandedly between classes to Ennoshita.

"What is?"

"The whole thing. I'm just saying. It's Asahi and me now, and hey, we're like an unstoppable team. You gotta come back." He was grinning ear to ear, but something also just wasn't quite right about it. It was sinister, sly, and slightly tilted.

Narita tilted his head, frowning. He couldn't quite place what was different about their classmate, but somewhere in the pit of his stomach, it grabbed him and shook him, bothering him on a level that unsettled him to a point where he thought he could taste vomit in his mouth. "I'm not so sure."

"Aw, come on! Just consider it, that's all I'm asking. We need at least six players to enter the inter high. With you guys, we'll be a real team!"

\--

Getting food for the crows was the biggest problem.

The new captain and vice-captain set about the task in a slow, cautious manner. They researched, they perused, they listened to news reports and interviews constantly, and Daichi even managed to get a police radio to listen in on. After days upon days of research and very nearly falling behind on homework, Sugawara yawned and suggested they find someone whose character they knew was despicable, rather than a criminal, since it was best to leave authorities to judge those sorts of people for now.

The victim was a girl at their school. She was a gossip and a busybody, and not in the good way. From what they all knew, she stirred up drama and started rumours for her own enjoyment. She stirred up fights and tore apart friendships through crafty lies and deceit, and cared nothing for any of her classmates. Against their own rules, it was, since she was technically someone they knew, but it was all they could think of, and time was running out. It had already been five days since the last time either Nishinoya or Asahi had anything to eat, and they all were beginning to worry. Time was of the essence. It was a sloppy, quick job, when they lured her into the forest behind the school. She admitted she only cared about people to use them, and Sugawara begged her to apologize. If she did, they'd let her go, find someone else, go back to their police radios and news reports.

She refused. She laughed at them, mocked them, and kept what they supposed was her pride until the very last moment.

This was a bloodbath. It was out of control, they both decided, standing over her body. Everything about it was twisted and wrong, and nothing good could possibly come of continuing down this path. Now four people were dead. Even if they never made another crow, if they didn't find some way to escape this, to turn Nishinoya or Asahi back to normal, people would continue to die.

Daichi stayed at Sugawara's house that night, and they said nothing for hours, simply staring at blank pages of homework and notes that no longer felt like they meant anything in the universe, with the weight of lives weighing down upon them. Daichi sat with his head in Sugawara's lap, staring up at his silver-haired classmate, wondering why all of this happened in the first place, why the gentle and kind face of his best friend could turn to such concern and despair.

Sugawara Koushi was too kind and too worried about others. He'd fuss over Daichi's homework and Daichi's feelings, how Daichi was eating and how he was sleeping, if he was well-rested or feeling up to practice on any given day. He'd massage his back and carefully work out the knots after practice, then murmur his concern about the first-years, and Daichi would laugh dryly to himself. Sure, Koushi had always been sort of diabolical, but it was in a calm, unselfish way. Sugawara was a setter who could orchestrate a team, playing them like a conductor raises a symphony. He could bring hope to their sad little deadbeat team, and had even when they were first years, before their "deadbeat captain," Sora, took over. Sugawara was the one who brought everyone towels, made sure everyone was properly hydrated. Sometimes he would bring people leftovers, just because he had extra, or make honey lemon for the whole team. He never needed a thank you, nor a favor in return. Simply a smile was enough. But no one was smiling now. Their mother hen with a heart of gold was an accomplice to murder, and a butcher of human bodies.

Now Sugawara Koushi was crying.

Crying for their teammates, for their captain, for the people they had killed. For Asahi, for Nishinoya. For Ennoshita and Narita and Kinoshita, for Tanaka, for him.

No. This had to stop.

No more butchering, no more bloody hands, no more feathers or hearts. No more pain for the setter who took it all upon himself. It ended here.

Except it didn't.

Of course, Nishinoya knew better than to ask Daichi for permission to turn Tanaka. Tanaka was his best friend and rival, and he refused to be separated from him for long. Or rather, Tanaka refused to be separated from him. Them. Both of them. He saw the drive, the power it gave them, and he wasn't about to be left in their dust. He wasn't afraid of pain, and he liked to believe (though it was probably ignorance more than a lack of fear) he wasn't afraid of death. Nishinoya and Asahi (though it was really mostly just Nishinoya helping Tanaka, and Asahi sitting to the side worrying over if he'd survive, if they should tell someone, if they should get help, what if something went wrong, ok, he'd just sit here and hold water and bandages, that sounded okay,) turned him late at night, in the woods behind Nishinoya's house at the base of the mountain.

Sugawara was awake, though not expectant of a text that arrived at approximately 1AM that night, followed by a phone call. It was Asahi's phone number.

"Koushi-san? Hey! Oh, you're awake! Good, can you help me out? It's kind of uh, urgent."

That was not Asahi's voice. It was Nishinoya's.

The setter sat up, stretching their arms for a moment, suddenly pulled out of the notes that were only being stared at, and not actually focused on at the moment.

Asahi's voice was somewhere in the background, and Sugawara could hear his concerned murmuring of "Why did you have to call him? He's going to tell Daichi, and he's going to be so mad. Even if he doesn't say anything, Daichi is going to find out. Daichi is going to be so mad..."

"Ah! Koushi-senpai! Can you bring us some uh, some meat? You know what I mean. We're at my house. It's really bad." Nishinoya sounded strangely calm, upbeat, even. Though Sugawara imagined that was just his personality more than his actual emotions. The libero could be like that sometimes. They had just eaten earlier that day, why were they hungry now? Usually they could wait at least two days between feeding.

"No, dumbass. Don't just ask for it!" Tanaka was scolding him.

"Well, you got any better ideas?" Nishinoya shot back.

"Sugawara-san, you don't need to come out here! Everything is under control!" Asahi's voice sounded more panicked than anything.

"Under control? No way! I'm hungry right now. I'm so hungry I could die. You weren't shitting me." Tanaka whined.

Suddenly, it all fell into place. They wanted meat. Tanaka. _Fuck_.

Breaking into Daichi's garage was an easy task for a schoolmate and best friend who happened to have a spare key entrusted to them. The frantic, late-night bike ride through the empty steets of town that followed was short enough and fast enough to make their sensei and coach proud, because in less than an hour, Koushi Sugawara found himself climbing the stone stairs up to the house and shrine on the side of the mountain where Nishinoya lived. The boy waiting for them on the steps looked fairly human, but returned to his true, more monstrous form as he took the setter by the hand, leading him around the building and through foliage to a place where two far less human-looking creatures sat. One was familiar, but the other was barely recognizable until he spoke.

"D-did you get it?" The larger one stammered, bowing his head anxiously.

"Er, yes, but as your vice captain, I think all three of you have some explaining to do," Sugawara answered softly, producing the zipped plastic bags from their messenger bag.

"Yeah, I knew you could get it! I smelled you coming with it! This is awesome! You're the best, Koushi-senpai!"

"Um, yeah, thanks."

Once Tanaka was fed, their senpai demanded an explanation again, and two of the three crows started talking over each other constantly, each trying to get in their own version of the story, or embellish the other's story with completely unnecessary details. It took awhile for Sugawara to calm them both enough that they both spoke at a pace that was neither breakneck nor a volume that exceeded that of a rock concert, but it all seemed to boil down to that they actually didn't have a reason or an excuse. Tanaka and Nishinoya just wanted to be crows together. Asahi had just been dragged along for the ride. _The poor guy,_  Sugawara thought.

"You know," Nishinoya added, grinning ear to ear. "You and Daichi should be crows, too! We can have a big crow family! You guys are so awesome at getting us food, and keeping us safe! You'd be even better at it, if you were like us!"

Sugawara fell silent. For every crow they made, someone else had to die. Why did they want to keep adding more, when they should be looking for a way out? A way to turn back to normal? This whole thing had been a mistake, after all! A horrible, misguided decision that led to the death of their captain! Yet here was their teammate, their _friend,_  insisting that it was better if they were all crows together. How many people would have to die? How many before they were caught, carted off somewhere, and thrown in jail for, well, _forever?_

The setter swallowed. "You know, I should just tell Daichi and let him kill all three of you, for a suggestion like that."

But Sugawara didn't tell Daichi.

Sugawara didn't say anything at their next practice about the missing meat, merely shrugging it off when the captain asked about it. They shrugged and smiled, instead offering to serve for recieves, and to help with everyone's form. He felt horrible for lying to Daichi, but it felt like it was best not to tell, for now. For now they'd have to figure out what to do to feed another crow. Two had doubled the consumption of meat, and a third was just going to be a struggle to feed. Daichi didn't need that stress.

Regardless, it took less than a week for the captain to notice on his own. Tanaka was too fast, improving at a rate that didn't quite make sense, and his cameraderie with their team's smallest player was louder and more obnoxious than ever before. He didn't hesitate to confront the setter about it. If anyone knew anything, it would be Sugawara, and of course, since how would a third crow survive without a food source? Asahi wouldn't be able to hurt a fly, let alone a person, and Nishinoya and Tanaka would have been discovered instantly if either (or both) of them ever attempted a kill on their own.

He sent everyone off to do drills outside, then stopped his teammate as they were about to leave the gym.

"Sugawara. Have you been keeping something from me?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," came the reply. Sugawara was as calm and level-headed as ever.

"Something's off about Tanaka, and I think you'd know about it," Daichi attempted.

"Ah, he's improving quickly. I'm proud of him."

"Please, don't lie to me, Koushi." His voice was pleading. "Tanaka's a crow now, isn't he?"

The other's breath hitched in his throat. There was no way of getting around it. "Well, yes."

The captain's voice was low, cautious. "Why? Look, I don't want to accuse you of anything, but clearly you knew all along. So you lied to me. Why change him?"

"I don't know. But I couldn't let him die," He answered softly.

"But we can't feed any more crows, Koushi! I can't do it, and I know you can't! Don't tell me you can, because you've killed for them and you don't need any more--" but he was cut off.

"They're our  _friends_ , Daichi. I'm going to help them. I'm going to protect them. Those are the rules you made."

"They're not even people anymore, Koushi! They're monsters. They eat people, people like you! You'd probably taste just as good as anyone to them! They're _using_  you." He was angry now, but hadn't quite raised his voice. His eyes were tired, sad, but his lips pursed into a tight, angry line. "You're too kind. Too kind to them, too kind to me."

"Don't say that, Dai..."

"But I will! I am saying it! This is completely out of control! We should have stopped when Sora died, but here we are! Surrounded by monsters, and they're already eating you ali--"

The sound of a ball dropping to the floor made them both freeze. Someone had heard. Someone was there. If anyone knew of the things they had done, everything would be over in an instant. A shiver of panic shot down Sugawara's spine, but the panic turned to despair when they turned to see Asahi standing alone in the doorway, eyes watering.

"S-sugawara..." he sniffed. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry. Daichi is right."

"Asahi..." the setter moved to stop him, but he hesitated.

"I'm so, so sorry, Sugawara-san, Sawamura-san. I knew it was hard, but...I should have done something." His face fell. "You take really good care of us, I don't know what to do for you, but. I'm sorry. I'll...I don't know, hunt for myself from now on. Or something. S-somehow," he tried to keep his lip from quivering, but he was failing. He was slowly coming undone before them both.

"No, Asahi, it's fine. You haven't done anything wrong. I promise, I'm doing everything I can to help you..." he trailed off, feeling helpless. He wanted to help, but he did also understand Daichi's point of view. The problem was that Daichi also didn't understand that this was a struggle for everyone. Perhaps he did, but at that moment, he wasn't thinking of them, and instead was only thinking of Sugawara. Guilt pulled at the back of his mind, raking its long claws across his thoughts.

Daichi balled his hands into fists, still seething with anger, but also his own guilt. He never meant for Asahi to hear any of those things, but he _had_  meant them. But...he also understood what Sugawara meant. He'd been seeing his fellow teammates as monsters, responsible for keeping them tamed, fed, away from harming humans. As long as he killed for them, as long as he protected them. Asahi was their precious ace with a heart of glass. He wasn't a monster. Maybe physically, but he couldn't just decide to stop eating flesh They all knew he had tried, they tried to feed him all sorts of foods, snacks, meats, crackers, anything, really, in hope that something else would provide sustenance. He could eat and eat, but it would do nothing for him. Daichi was aware of this, it just wasn't fair now that Sugawara had to suffer, as well.

"No, I-I'll help you. Anything you need, please tell me. I never wanted you to suffer... if I knew I would've turned into this," he sniffed. "I would have said no! I would have said no to you, I would have stopped Sora, I...I don't know what I'd do. But if I wasn't, Nishinoya would still be human, Tanaka would still be human, so it's all my fault...so I apologize. I'll...I'll go now, I'll be outside with the others," he turned, wiping large, salty tears on the sleeve of his tee shirt.

"Asahi, wait! I'm sorry..." Sugawara called after him, but he was already gone.

Daichi chewed his lip, feeling pure guilt. All of this was his fault.

They didn't speak for the rest of the week that Sugawara saw, but somehow Sugawara could tell that they had talked outside of practice and school, and they settled into a routine of anxious, but not tense cooperation. Daichi and Sugawara ensured that the crows were well fed, and the three of them trained together until they were bruised and exhausted They'd be their firepower for the next tournament as it drew near, if only they could get a full team.

The weeks came and went, and they were surprised to be greeted by three of the first-years who had quit earlier in the year waiting for them one day, a few weeks before the local fall tournament. They were already dressed in their gym clothes and kneepads, and their self-appointed ringleader, Ennoshita, had a volleyball tucked under his arm. They knew it wasn't serious, but they also knew that the rest of the team was excited for a chance to play again. "Hey, so. We heard you need a few more members for a volleyball team. That is, if you'll take a few orphan crows back."

Daichi's eyes lit up. Of course they would. Now they'd finally be a team. And a team they were, for awhile. Integrating the three of them back into the team went far better than expected, and as a group of two wing spikers and a middle blocker, Tanaka quickly took to calling them the "ita-team," as a term of endearment. They weren't powerful players, but they had drive, and that was all anyone on the team really wanted. They played fearlessly, and if they noticed something was different about the crows, they never mentioned it.

The local tournament came faster than any of them expected,and they all prayed that their training would pay off, but Daichi reminded everyone that their old deadbeat captain would have wanted all of them to go into this and have fun. They could lose, but not without a fight. It was a shame, everyone agreed, that they faced the current reigning champion team in the second round. They were defeated, but something was different. Something had changed, and Sugawara couldn't help but notice that it was an air, a feeling, about them that was changing. No longer did they feel the team was an assortment of people, punctuated by the power of beasts, but more of a group of beasts themselves, human and crow alike.

After the tournament, Daichi stopped Asahi as they were leaving, asking their ace to hang back for a few minutes. He shot a nervous glance at Sugawara, but the setter nodded, allowing a small smile before taking a few of the bags, tossing a towel around Tanaka's shoulder and shooing them out of the room.

Their captain sat upon one of the benches, fingers interlaced, and it was plain to see that Asahi was nervous. They had somewhat made up for the outburst a few weeks earlier, but it had been an uneasy tension this entire time.

"Asahi. I owe you an apology," Daichi began.

"No, it's fine! I promise, you don't owe me anything," his teammate answered, throwing up his hands. "Honest!"

"No, I do. You're a good person. And you're our ace. And I've been treating you unfairly. You're not a monster, and you'd sooner starve to death than kill someone and eat them for yourself. You're not a bad person, and you're not just some animal. I..." he pursed his lips, exhaling sharply through his nose. Maybe he owed Asahi ten thousand apologies. For every irritable groan he had made, for every time he tapped his toe in impatience, for every time he sighed when he opened the freezer and viewed the macabre pantry he had made for them. He was less human than Asahi. "So, I'm sorry."

Silence hung in the air, and they both looked at each other, and a cloud between them dissipated.

"Don't beat yourself up so much. I only yell at you because I know you can do better."

"P-please don't!"

\--

Before either he or Sugawara noticed it, three more crows were added to their midst. Exams were approaching rapidly when Nishinoya invited the entire team up to his grandfather's house for a joint sleepover and study session. Everyone, save Sugawara, who fell ill with the flu and told Sawamura (repeatedly so) that he couldn't make it, their setter would rather stay home and sleep, and avoid infecting everyone else so close to exams.

He was reluctant to allow it, but their captain eventually gave in, realizing that it wasn't his choice to make. In the end, he didn't really have control of anyone's decisions. It was alien to watch them from the outside. Despite the fact that they feasted around a corpse, claws and mouths intent upon tearing apart the flesh, they climbed across one another playfully, wings and feathers a tangle as they tried to get at the choicest bits of meat, truly a little band of birds crowding around their feast. In that setting, they didn't seem like monsters tearing apart their prey so much as a tiny family. A tiny family of strange creatures that had once been, and would continue to be his friends.

Their only options were to eat like this, or die. Nishinoya had climbed up on top of Tanaka's shoulders, spreading his wings out to help keep his balance, while Azumane fussed over them possibly breaking just about anything in the room (or being caught by Yuu's grandfather if they were too loud or obvious). Narita and Kinoshita tried to be more refined as they ate, but their own disgust and apprehension at eating What Had Once Been A Person was still written all over their faces, even as they carefully tore bits of meat apart with their newly grown claws. When they were done, Yuu and Chikara prepared a large bowl with a wet towel for everyone to rinse their claws and faces off with, and Daichi watched (though he tried to look disinterested, only focusing on the paper he brought to work on; he didn't want to tell them he was finished already, it would be easier to remove himself from the conversation if he pretended to have homework) quietly, staying out of the way unless they asked for his help explicitly.

Somehow, everything had reversed itself. Somehow now, he was the outsider on his own team. How was he supposed to keep them together and empower them when he was the stranger? He asked himself this time and time again as he sat there on the couch, while all of the others piled together onto two futons that had been rolled out next to one another, the six of them a mess of feathers and arms and legs wrapped around one another as they all completely ignored the kung fu action flick that Nishinoya had chosen for their viewing that night. Instead, cuddling together and laughing and making cooing noises in their throats that Sawamura doubted any human could imitate.

He slept on the couch that night as all of the others slept in their little pile. They appeared human enough, wings and claws tucked away beneath skin and fingernails and shirts. To anyone who didn't know better, they just looked like a bunch of teenagers curled up in a pile.

One was a crow.

Two were a pair.

Three made a trio.

Then there were six, a family.

Two trios, one could say. One group was unruly, while the other was calmer, less loud, and more reserved. Sugawara couldn't recall how their numbers had increased so rapidly or so readily.

Azumane was first, though fierce in the right situations, he was also timid and alone.

Nishinoya was next, all fire and excitement.

Tanaka followed suit, not to be outdone by his best friend.

The fourth was Ennoshita, determined to become stronger and atone for his departure earlier in the year.

Narita came after, followed by Kinoshita, focused on empowering themselves, and the team.

Taking care of this conglomeration of birds was proving to be no easy task, and both Sugawara and Daichi found it more and more difficult with each addition to the little flock, harder to keep the crows a secret. They were _their_  crows, their teammates, their responsibility. No one had asked them to be the caretakers, but now that it was only the two of them left that were human, they took it upon themselves. They couldn't consider themselves the "light" side of the team, if their teammates were creatures of darkness, because they both felt the guilt of the murders weighing down upon their shoulders. The fear of discovery, and the fear of death both compelled them to press on, pushed to the very brink of their own sanity. (Daichi had many, many nightmares of the police opening his garage to find the two of them standing over a body or four, Sugawara's expert hands in the middle of cleaving an arm open. He looked innocent even when washing blood off of his hands in the sink casually, and it made him wonder how far gone they really were.) Not to mention that certain crows were terrible at keeping secrets. Specficially, their loud-mouthed libero and Tanaka came to mind.

"You know, we're still two crows short of a murder," Tanaka said with a grin as they left practice one day. They were all tired and sore, but he stared Sugawara down so harshly that the setter had to glance away.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he answered curtly, with a dismissive shrug. He knew entirely, but he didn't want to address it.

"In English, they call a group of crows a murder. It's sort of a poetic term, but the word murder also means _to kill someone,_  specifically another person," Ennoshita explained, a little proud that he recalled his teacher mentioning it offhandedly in English class.

"Chikara, don't," Narita warned, shifting his bag a little higher on his shoulder.

"Oh, come on! I know I'm not the only one who feels this way."

They all fell silent, until Tanaka piped in, grinning.

"Of course you're not! Everybody knows that it would be so much better if our captain and vice captain joined us!" he added, nearly jumping forward as he patted their setter on the back overenthusiastically, so much that Koushi had to take a step forward to regain footing.

"Ah, yes, but we're already right here," they shot back with a soft smile. "Why would we go anywhere?"

"No, that's not what he meant!" Nishinoya interjected, pouting.

"Yeah, you're practically our mastermind!" Tanaka clarified, his signature (but altogether completely harmless) smirk returning to his face. "Both of you are! It's kind of weird without you. Like when you throw a party and your parents are out of town, but you expect them to come home the next morning, so you clean up really fast, but they don't come back, actually they don't come back for like a week and you start acting out just to see if they'll come home to yell at you, wearing mismatched socks, and eating in bed, and peeing in the shower, and--"

'I think that's enough discussion of that," Sawamura cut in, his voice calm. "Besides, if we became crows, who would take care of all of you?"

_Why not you? Me?_

_...Would it actually be that much different?_ Koushi wondered, chewing on his lower lip.

On Daichi's bed that night, they curled around one another, and they kept wondering the same thing. Neither of them said it, but they were both terrified of the prospect of being caught, or the idea of someone discovering their crows. It could happen any day, if they weren't careful. A freezer full of body parts didn't look like human body parts when they were carefully butchered, but how does one explain a person covered in feathers, with wings and claws? To a child, one could dismiss it as an imaginary friend, but to an adult it would have to be a hallucination, a mythological creature or a figment of an imagination or an omen.

They both feared the day someone overzealous like Nishinoya or Tanaka, or anxious like Asahi or Ennoshita, was captured by the police or some research or _something_  and dissected like a giant frog on a sterile table in a laboratory somewhere, chained up and starved, fed only enough to keep them alive for further experiments. Picked at and declawed, feathers torn out to be analyzed by someone in a labcoat who was determined to find out how such a creature could even exist. Asahi would sit there and take it, barely fighting back until he was desperate, trying to earn their trust and respect, but Tanaka would fight, all tooth and claw until they had to sedate him, a woozy mess until he woke up again, and the cycle would repeat itself. The blood on their own hands was nothing compared to that fear.

"...Koushi? Are you all right?" Daichi's voice was soft. He was choosing his words with care, and the setter knew it, leaning against his shoulder as they sighed.

"I don't know. I haven't known for quite some time. I was just thinking. Sorry to worry you."

He didn't ask what the setter was thinking about, he already knew. After all, it was the same thing had been plaguing both their minds for months now. Now they both had to struggle with this, but at least they had each other.

"I've been thinking too," Sawamura began, wrapping his arms around the setter's smaller frame. "About a lot of things, and about you. I'm worried about you, even if you don't want me to be."

"I'm aware of that, and I can't change your mind either, no matter what I say," Koushi murmured.

They sat together as they did on many nights, reveling in the quiet and the comfort of each others' presence. Neither of them needed to say a word. Koushi lay down beside him, pressing his cheek into his shoulder. The minutes passed as though they were centuries, both in length and the feeling that they aged with the time. Daichi rolled over, wrapping his arms around Koushi. The feeling of the setter's presence was the only thing that gave him some semblance of comfort. Theere was no one else in the world to understand either of them. They only had each other, as the boys who played with forces beyond their control. Was there anything they could do? he felt like the entire world was closing in on them.

This was all his fault. All he had wanted at the start of this was to play volleyball seriously, to actually feel like they had a chance. He hadn't wanted them to be a group of so-called "flightless crows," how had it come to this? He barely noticed the salty tears against his cheeks until they were fowing freely, and he shuddered, wrapping himself around Koushi. He had destroyed everything: his teammates lives, their morality, and their happiness.

Koushi had been right. He wasn't even human himself any longer. No one with any humanity would do such things willingly. He mourned for his humanity, not even sure of when it had died.

"I'm tired," one of them muttered aloud.

Daichi couldn't tell if the words were his, or if they came from Koushi, and their hands intertwined, fingers interlocking.

"We're alone in this now."

_"But we don't have to be."_

Neither of them had to say anything. They both understood.

\--

The night they both tasted their forbidden meal was cool and clear.

Overhead, a single tiny crow perched by itself on a twig, watching the creatures gather below. All of them were there, huddled in a small circle, though they barely dared to speak a word. Even Nishinoya and Tanaka were quiet, watching their teammates carefully.

The space they congregated in was near the place where Asahi had transformed, though deeper into the woods. They always tried to change their locations when they could as a precaution against being discovered. The moon was high and the air was crisp, moonbeams gliding down through the threes to cast eerie shadows and speckled highlights of blue and pale silver across the forest floor. The dead leaves crunched beneath their feet, and they walked without speaking.

No one said anything about their hands being intertwined, nor the gentle, reassuring kiss each planted on the back of the other's palm. No one objected to the two of them sharing their taboo dinner, either.

Daichi bit down first, tearing the soft cardiac muscle with his teeth, and Koushi wiped away stray bits of blood on his cheek with his thumb, but instead of wiping away the offending grime, it smeared across his face. Something about it felt wrong, but not in a way Koushi could place. The setter had long since hardened himself to the sight of blood, as their resident butcher. He swallowed something, something that tasted and felt akin to hot bile in his throat.

He couldn't see Daichi in any other way than this. He was their captain, their friend, someone more important to him than anyone in the universe. Daichi never deserved to cry, though now he could be classified as a serial killer. Maybe this was fitting, Sugawara thought. Maybe it was right for Daichi, but it didn't stop him from being afraid.

He bit down second, the salty, yet slightly sweet taste of raw meat and flesh filled his mouth. It was strange, but somehow a foreign sort of delicious. After a second bite, and a third, until between the two of them, they had devoured it all. His hand dropped, fingers coated in a thin layer of blood from their meal.

Daichi panted, leaning forward into Sugawara, arms gripping the setter's shoulders. The pain was evident on his face, sweat dripping down the sides of his cheeks, mixing with tiny black feathers as they etched into and raised from his skin. Koushi leaned against him, rubbing his back, before pulling the edge of the back of his shirt and pulling it over his head. Hands pressed against bare skin, Koushi swallowed a lump in his throat, fighting back tears.

He could already feel the pressure building in his own back, as though his skin was too tight and too small, like his limbs were all bound at once.

Once he released Daichi's wings, he would be free. Daichi would no longer be human, but something humans were unaware of, not ethereal, but still real, and amongst friends. Friends who needed protecting, but if he, too, became like that, what would become of the team?

Who would protect the them?

He pressed his hands into the tears of skin, trying not to rip it and worsen the pain and severity of the wounds, fingers wrapping around slimy feathers and bone. Koushi pulled, and they slipped through the skin with a wet scratching noise, unfolding above their heads. Daichi shivered and gasped, falling forward and supporting himself on his hands, knuckles curling into the dirt and dried leaves.

Wings.

Huge, black wings that cast long, dark shadows in the soft glow of the moonlight stretched from his back. The setter let his hands fall away, back to his sides, amazed. He'd seen this transformation before, but Daichi just seemed to be a sad sort of beautiful, even as his eyes became dark and pupilless, unrecognizable in the dim light.

He took a step back, very nearly stumbling to his knees. The pressure in his back was building, growing painful, even, and he doubled forward in pain, arms clutching his shoulders.

But, he hesitated. Who would protect them now? Who would take care of them, the entire team, if he, too, ceased to be human?

"No...I can't. I can't do it..." he murmured, lip quivering.

Daichi stepped forward, taking him in his arms. "It's already too late," he whispered, running a hand through silvery hair, letting the setter bury his face in his shoulder. "Why not? are you scared?" His words were ragged, tired, but his tone was calm. Even as the fingers buried in Sugawara's hair darened and cracked, becoming long and powerful claws, he still held his body close. He seemed small, delicate in that moment, and it was odd. Sugawara Koushi was never delicate. Sugawara Koushi was a power of nature, a person of determination and focus of mind, in a vulnerable moment. Throughout the entire ordeal, he never showed fear. Apprehension, disgust, and frustration, perhaps, but never fear.

"No, but who will take care of all of you? I-I can't... I can't leave you like this..." the setter breathed, biting down on his lip.

"Leave us?" The captain pulled him close, helping him out of his tee shirt. "Koushi..." he shook his head, hugging him to his chest once more. He reached his arms around his back, feeling for the split, the wounds at the edges of the shoulder blades, reaching clawed fingers in to hook around feathers and bone.

They froze in time for that moment, and Koushi looked into his eyes. Soft brown met unearthly black, but to the two of them it was completely normal, familiar. Holding onto one another like this was home. "You're not leaving us," he whispered, lips breathy and warm against his ear. "You're joining us."

He pulled, wings unfurling and shaking, feathers bursting forth, illiciting a cry that sounded more avian than human. Aching fingers buried themselves in the dirt and dry leaves as they cracked and morphed into deadly claws, wings spreading out behind him, shining silver as they were bathed in the soft glow of the moonlight.

Both their faces were dripping with sweat, and Koushi felt something gripping at him, something welling up from his gut and scraping at his face and mouth.

_Hunger._

It was overwhelming. he had never felt hunger like this in all of his seventeen years of living. If he didnt eat, it would devour him whole. He needed food. The very smell of the blood that still lingered on Daichis lips was enough for him to bring a long, clawed finger to his mouth, trying to lick up any remains of the heart. It felt almost dysphoric, realizing these caws were now his fingers, but it also didn't feel wrong. It didn't feel wrong to beg for meat, nor did it feel wrong to practically pounce upon their collective meal, as all of the creatures crowded around the carcass they had torn the heart from, feasting upon the remains.

Only flesh sated the hunger, nothing else. They could eat ordinary food, but oftentimes it resulted in a mild stomachache rather than feeling filling.

Only humans could feed them.

It became a natural stretch, a rhythm, even. The captain and vice captain would hunt, taking in their victim in the dead of the night, eating what they wanted, dividing it up for the team, then stowing the remaining meat for later. The innocent teen on the streetcorner with the soft smile and silvery hair was their bait, and also their orchestrator.

  
Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and all too soon it was April once more, and the start of a new school year. A single, tiny crow perched on a twig outside the gym, watching its rowdy occupants through recently-washed windows.

"If you're doing things sluggishly, you'll waste three more years," a particularly intense first year quipped.

"Don't you say that as if everything was pointless!" the firey redhead shot back, challenging him.

Daichi stepped in, trying to calm them both, but he blazed on, interrupting him.

"Let's have a match!"

"What kind of match?"

"Volleyball! That's obvious, isn't it?"

"How exactly would a one on one match work?"

"Erm, passing or something?"

"There's no winning or losing in passing, dumbass!"

Sugawara fought back a sigh. These were their new teammates? Well, two of them, according to the roster. They might be promising players, genius, even, but they brought disaster in their wake. He knew he'd told Daichi that they should take any dedicated new teammates into the flock, but would it be worth it, with two rambunctious ones like this? After all, Asahi had taken leave (Tanaka refused to let any of them say quit) from the team, along with their libero.

Tanaka wasn't having any of their nonsense, but more importantly, neither was their captain. He promptly threw them both out of the gym after their impromptu match and run-in with the principal's toupee, locking the door. He leaned against it, rubbing his temples. "Why me?" he groaned, half in response to the shouts of "let us in! we've made up!" through the door, and half in frustration at the entire situation. They continued to argue with each other on the other side.

"Are you sure about this, Daichi?" Sugawara asked, turning back to him. "They're valuable teammates, and from the looks of it, they're already strong enough to join us."

"No way! They're fired up, but their spirit is all wrong!" Tanaka countered.

"Fine, then. We'll compromise." Daichi was calm, controlled. "They, not just the two of them, but all of our first years, will have to prove both their loyalty and strength. Until then, we will remain a secret. We'll be humans, as far as they're concerned. Only once they've proven themselves, will they join us."

Tanaka seemed to accept it, letting out a puff of air from his cheeks. They'd have to decide for themselves.

Sugawara felt himself smile, and the last of his humanity slip away. He didn't mourn it. There wasn't any fear anymore. Through this, they had become close, dependent upon each other, even.

Together, they would be a murder of crows.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Narrendor for betaing, and Jaspen for all of the help with this AU.  
> I know there are canon third-years for the previous year, but I had already planned on the team captain dying and hey, it's an alternate universe anyway. 
> 
> Also a couple more little notes about the crow anatomy, which is kind of nonsensical in the real world, but sshh. Anyway, the older someone is (actual age, not how soon they transformed), the larger their wings generally grow. At a certain point, wings do stop growing, but they're all considered babies right now. Their crow form will also start looking less and less human as they grow older, with more feathers, stretching all down their backs, more of their faces and arms, and tailfeathers. Right now they're all far too young to fly, they can't learn until their tailfeathers grow in, despite having these gigantic wings. Also old coach Ukai is no crow, he's 100% human, but he's seen enough of them to know all about them. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
